8 and a Half Years Later
by Draco Mato
Summary: When Emmet is suddenly killed before he was meant to, he has to fix the damage done with his sudden death, including changes made to his friends. With the help of a reaper, his changed friends, and the people of LEGO, Emmet has to fix the future before he's even allowed to return to his own time and continue his life the way he was meant to.
1. Countdown to Death

**Chapter One**

**Countdown to Death**

* * *

It was a good day.

Emmet was quite pleased with how the day was actually coming together. With the morning having him occupied with Lucy, Benny and Unikitty, then a nice date with Lucy that took up his entire afternoon, and then a guys' night out with Benny, Batman, Metalbeard and President Business, needless to say, this day was simply the best. No... not the best, just simply _awesome_. His new life since the T.A.K.O.S. Tuesday Incident had simply gotten much better, and he was happier than he had been in ages.

He'd gained brothers... A Space Guy, and a Masked Hero. Best friends, in all of them, even in the best police officer in all of Bricksburg, the _President_, and the Princess of Cloud Cuckooland herself. A pirate cyborg who declared himself the uncle of everyone in the group. A _girlfriend_. It was the most ragtag group of people Emmet had ever seen, and yet... they were a family. His family.

And here he was, at the dinner table, now, with all of them surrounding it, chatting with each other openly. It was a dinner party at Batman's, currently in his Bruce Wayne persona, and everyone was dressed for the occasion. Emmet had even bothered to step out of his construction worker uniform to get dragged into a black suit by Lucy, who wore a matching dress with the markings from her sweater on it. Next to him on his other side was Benny, his cracked helmet still on due to refusing to take it off, but wearing a blue suit almost matching Emmet's. Across from them sat Captain Metalbeard, who took up nearly the entire side of the table, resulting in only Unikitty to be able to sit with him. President Business and Bad Cop hadn't been able to come to the party, mostly due to something coming up, but table settings for the two of them had been done up anyway to honor them.

There was even a table setting for Vitruvius.

"Everyone!" Bruce suddenly declared, raising both his hands up to indicate that he wanted to speak. "I'm glad you could all make it, tonight. Shame about Business and Bad Cop, but at least we're all here."

"Where's Dick?" Lucy asked politely, picking up her glass. "I expected him and the others to be here."

"Dick's out on a date," Bruce said cheerfully. "Kory Anders." Everyone responded with cheers, happy smiles, or '_Nice_.' "Tim and Barbara are out doing patrol tonight so I could be here."

"Ah, so they're ready to be steppin' up onto the plate, are they?" Metalbeard asked, looking as curious as a one-eyed cyborg pirate with a metal beard could.

Bruce's reply was a smile and a nod. "I'm thinking they are."

Everyone seemed pleased with that, and the dinner resumed as Alfred appeared to prepare everyone for the first course.

"There be a treasure map that some of me men found over at a small bayou village in Pirate's Cove," Metalbeard brought up then, just as Emmet was thinking he should voice something about that new movie coming out, or his big plans. "It be a fantastic treasure - the men be declarin' it as the Dragonfire."

"The Dragonfire?" Benny voiced. "What's that?"

"No one be too sure," was the reply. "Some men claim it's gold. Others be claimin' that it is a lost gem. But me men are insistin' that we try and find it."

"It sounds _exciiiiting_!" Unikitty cheered. "You should go find it! I bet it's sparkly, and pretty, and so shiny..."

"Arrr! That be what we're hopin'."

After a slight pause, Emmet finally spoke up. "I'm thinking about moving out of my apartment and getting a house."

It was like a pin dropped and it caused everyone to silence. Unikitty's eyes went big and wide, and her mouth formed into a large, excited grin. Metalbeard's single eye widened, and his mouth shaped into the form of an 'o'. Benny nearly dropped the glass he had been holding, and sharply turned to look at Emmet, his big, stupid grin on his face. Lucy looked just as happy, and Bruce Wayne narrowed his little black eyes ever so slightly.

"Really?" he asked. "What brought that decision along?"

Emmet attempted to shrug, but the way that Lucy was now grabbing the arm closest to her and apparently trying to rip it out of its socket out of pure joy kind of stopped that. "I just figured I needed a bigger place. I mean, one day, I'm _hoping_, anyway, Lucy and I will be living together, and well... My apartment isn't big enough for the both of us... and, well, more room, too..."

"It barely fits us on movie night!" Benny brought up somewhat helpfully.

Movie night was hosted by one of them every Friday, and the only ones that didn't host it were Unikitty (Seeing as she lived with Lucy temporarily while Cloud Cuckooland was being rebuilt... somewhat slowly. It made for interesting nights when Emmet visited to spend time with Lucy and also having to spend time with Unikitty.) and Benny (Who lived in the back of a spaceship traveling across Cape Space and the LEGO Worlds, changing location every night. It also made him somewhat hard to get a hold of seeing as he didn't own a phone and his schedule was a little... odd.) So, mostly, movie nights with Emmet due to his small apartment were nearly impossible. Nearly. For one matter, Metalbeard usually didn't attend them due to how big he was, and how small the ceiling was. The double-decker couch made it possible for everyone else to attend and still have a good time, at least, but it almost didn't feel the same.

_Wait, how does Benny live in that spaceship? _Emmet suddenly wondered to himself. _Like, does he have a kitchenette that he had to build in there or something? I've seen that spaceship, it's not that big. Does it work like a T.A.R.D.I.S.? Maybe Benny knows the Doctor? Hey, come to think of it, those Doctor Who guys are _weird_... like, with all their timey-wimey stuff and being weird. _

"... Emmet. Emmet... _Emmet._"

"What?"

Oh, right.

Looking at everyone around him, Emmet gave them all a big grin. "I'm still here!"

"Good to know," Bruce said with a slight chuckle. "Okay, so getting a bigger place to live sounds like a good idea, Brickowski."

"I think it's a _great_ idea, babe," Lucy sighed happily. "Where were you thinking of moving?"

Emmet's smile didn't fade one bit. "Well, I was thinking of still living in Bricksburg. There's a neighbourhood of nicely-sized houses I can change to accommodate what I need easily over by Octan."

"Oh, so you'll be neighbours with President Business!" Benny said happily. He frowned then. "... Well, kind of."

"Yeah, that's one bonus."

From there, the dinner moved on. The dinner itself was spectacular, as it always was whenever Alfred cooked for the group. Before it was too late, everyone was leaving, waving goodbye to Bruce as they departed. Benny hopped into his little spaceship home and flew away, heading to who knew where to land for the night and head to bed. The _Sea Cow_, Metalbeard's pirate ship, was parked at the Gotham docks, so the cyborg pirate carried on his way heading down toward it, trying not to step on any poor civilians of the Hero Lands. Emmet hopped into his car, let Lucy and Unikitty get in as well, and together the three headed down to the commute to Bricksburg.

It was a good day.

* * *

_The Countdown begins._

* * *

_Eight._

* * *

The next morning, Emmet got a phone call from President Business. It was a good phone call, or at least Emmet thought so. For about an hour, the two just chatted about average, everyday things. Business usually called Emmet nowadays to get a bit of a break from the hectic life as a business owner, and considering that most of his staff were robots (slowly being replaced with actual people for some _sanity _in the building, and for Business himself) so usually they just talked about random things, and mostly about their friends rather than themselves.

So, for the most part, the phone conversation went something like this.

"_So the dinner was pretty good, then? Aside from everyone and their mother deciding to drop a bomb._"

"Really, the only bombs dropped Business were Dick Grayson dating Kory Anders and my deciding to move."

"_Yeah, I suppose everyone is used to Metalbeard dropping 'I'm going on an adventure!' by now._"

"Pretty much!"

"_So where you thinking of moving?_"

"Around your neighbourhood somewhere. The houses are pretty big around there, and with a permit from you, I can expand it somewhat so Metalbeard can come over and visit."

"_And also so you and Lucy can move in together and stuff. I know you're looking forward to a family at some point._"

"Man, I haven't even dropped the question on her and you're teasing me."

"_You kind of make it easy. Do you even have a ring, yet?_"

"Yeah. Benny's holding on to it until he thinks I've got the nerve to do it."

"_You gave it to Benny._"

"Well, he helped me pick it out. And, besides, he said he's got it in this safe he has under his pilot seat. He didn't think I was brave enough yet to ask her, and really, I think he's right. I told him not to give it to me until I ask him on my knees or until he thinks its the right time or something."

"_You're trusting the homeless space guy to hold onto your engagement ring._"

"He's not homeless, you know. He technically has a home."

"_Not according to file. He doesn't even have a permanent address. Nobody can send him letters and he can't apply for anything like welfare or meal tickets. I can't believe you're trusting him to hold onto it for you._"

"He'll do it. He's my best friend. Practically my brother."

"_If you say he will. Anyway, Emmet, I'm glad you're thinking about it. Bad Cop's been wondering when you'd drop the question on her._"

"Yeah, I seem to recall him asking me, too. It seems a lot of you guys are looking forward to the wedding. When it happens. ... _If _it happens."

"_If me, Batman, Benny and Bad Cop are not involved in some way, I will be horribly insulted, and I'm sure the others will, too._"

"Benny and Batman have already declared themselves groomsmen."

"_Well then, I call a spot, too._"

"Lucy'd have to find a lot of bridesmaids then."

... And so on. Altogether, it was a good conversation and put Emmet in good spirits.

* * *

_"Anyway, I've got a meeting coming up soon, so I'll give you another call later. Talk to you later, Brickowski!"_

* * *

_Seven._

* * *

Shortly after that, Emmet found himself at a coffee shop, sitting across from Bad Cop on his break. Larry the barista had given them each the coffee that they'd desired, having memorized both of their orders and then some already. He had already known the kind of way that Emmet liked his coffee - black, nice and simple - and apparently Bad Cop liked milk in his. Together sitting at this table, they traded stories and information regarding the others.

"I hear Benny's stopping by in town later," Emmet shared. "I'm looking forward to seeing him!"

"You saw him last night," Bad Cop clearly couldn't help bringing up. "It hasn't been that long since you last saw him."

"Nah, but I like being able to see my friends during the day," was the answer from the construction worker. "And Benny doesn't often actually bring his ship around this way. Usually he's picked up by Batman or Metalbeard somewhere."

"Oh yeah, there's not a lot of Spaceship Parking Zones in Bricksburg." It was said in a tone that spoke clearly of Bad Cop forgetting that fact. "Isn't there one right in front of your house, though?"

Emmet gave a nod as he got ready to take a sip of his coffee. "Yeah, there is. Benny's just worried he'd scare my neighbours off or something like that."

"Fair enough." Bad Cop took a sip of his coffee before continuing. "So, Business tells me that you have a ring picked out for Lucy. Are you proposing soon?"

Emmet blushed just a little bit. "Not any time soon. I don't have the nerves, yet. But yeah. I'm planning to at some point. I want it to be special."

"Completely understandable."

* * *

_"Later, lad. See you next time."_

* * *

_Six._

* * *

Later, on that same day, Captain Metalbeard had called Emmet over to the docks, as he was preparing to sail off in search of the Dragonfire, the most fabulous treasure that he and his men had apparently heard about. As Emmet helped the pirate load up some important supplies onto the ship, the pirate brought something up that really made him think.

"So, Emmet be thinkin' of movin' to a bigger house, hmm?" the Pirate had said at first. "This salty old pirate is lookin' forward to being able to step inside, if the changes can be made."

"Hey, don't worry about it," Emmet had said nearly right away. "Remember, I've got the President on my side! He can give me the permission I need to expand my house so you can step inside. I'll even make sure you can explore the whole first level of the house."

Metalbeard earned a surprised expression on his face, before a smile joined it. "Ah, so this house be 'bout me and Lucy, then. Less about you, you land mutt."

Emmet gave a chuckle. "Really, I just want to be able to fit all the people I care about in it." He picked up a box and carried it aboard. "I mean, I can do that with a few of the people, but not everyone. You always get left out and I only have one bed, so no one can sleep over. I want my new house to have some spare rooms, so I can have these super sweet sleepovers with everyone invited."

Metalbeard get a chuckle as he picked up the box and put it where it needed to be. Nearly all the things were loaded onto the ship now. "Thank ye for the help, Emmet. It is much appreciated."

"How long are you and the crew planning to be away?" asked Emmet as he dodged the Flash zooming past with some apparently much-needed tools. It was hard to forget that the superhero had joined Metalbeard's crew at some point. "Are you going to be gone for long?"

"Nay, we're planning 'bout a few weeks at most. The map not be too hard ter follow," Metalbeard said in return, a smile on his face. "Don't be too worried, Emmet. We'll all be back with the the Dragonfire before ye know it, and then we'll all be havin' those sleepovers yer lookin' forward to."

* * *

_"Be seein' y' shortly, lad. Won' be gone fer long!"_

* * *

_Five._

* * *

Benny had landed his spaceship home in the park near Emmet's house, surprising most of his neighbours, but Emmet's strange entourage of guests was something that they were getting used to by now. For an already perfect day, it only made it more perfect. Emmet was glad to see another one of his friends. Hopping out of his apartment building and practically skipping down the stairs, he rushed to the spaceship and greeted Benny with a highfive when the Space Guy stepped out.

"Benny! You actually used the parking spot!" Emmet said cheerfully.

"Well, I kind of had to, I need to do some really quick grocery shopping after I'm done hanging out with you!" Benny said all too quickly and cheerfully, floating around excitedly. "I ran out of milk, and the canned food is running low, oh, and I also need some juice..."

"Wow, sounds like you have quite the list there," Emmet interrupted, knowing that the ramble would only increase should he let it. "Did you need any help?"

Benny shook his head happily. "No, no, I can handle it just fine! I usually do my shopping alone anyway! And, and, besides! After that, I'll need to jet, because there's some kind of seminar going on down at Cape Space and I'll need to be... Oh, wait, you need an address to attend that. Well, then! I guess I get to skip out of that meeting. Never mind! My twelve o'clock is suddenly open."

Emmet could only laugh at this. "Do you want to grab some lunch with me, then?"

"DO I!?"

* * *

_"Bye, Emmet! See you tomorrow! T__here's a little something I have to give you. So, I'll see you then!"_

* * *

_Four._

* * *

After hanging out with Benny for a few hours, Emmet had to leave, as he'd promised he'd visit Unikitty, who for the day, was all alone in Lucy's house as she wandered doing... something. Emmet wasn't entirely certain what she was up to, but that was okay, because he'd be seeing her for dinner at seven. So, for two hours, he decided to sit with Unikitty, simply building with some spare blocks or watching cartoons, which was one of the unicorn cat's favourite past times at Lucy's place.

"Say, Emmet?" Unikitty asked suddenly as they were doing some crafts.

"Hmmm?" Emmet only voiced this as he was sternly glaring at the creation he'd made. He had been trying to build a really sweet bike. Instead, it came out looking like his car. Oh well.

"If you marry Lucy, does that make me your sister-in-law?" Her voice was so chipper and happy that Emmet looked up at her instantly. "Well, I was only wondering because sometimes me and Lucy do, like, girly sisterly stuff like paint her nails and my hooves or something and sometimes I think we're best friends and others I think of Lucy more like my big sister. So if you marry her, does that make me your sister-in-law and Benny and Batman like my brothers-in-law because you three kinda act like brothers and..."

"... Yes." He had a big grin on his face, clearly having got what she was trying to ask. "Yes, it would, I suppose."

"Oh! Good!" Unikitty said cheerfully. "Because I was wondering, see. I want to do something really cool for the two of you when you get married. Like, build a cute little house warming gift. I guess a pot of nice flowers would work... Ooh! I could put rainbows on it or sparkles, or even get you guys a puppy..."

* * *

_"Today was super, super fun! I hope we can do it again, soon! Bye, Emmet!" _

* * *

_Three._

* * *

Batman and his three sidekicks (Okay, two sidekicks and Nightwing.) had stumbled upon Bricksburg on a mission of some sort involving the Joker. All Emmet knew, was now their cars had collided and Emmet's car was short a front bumper. Emmet scratched his head as he looked at the damage and looked up at the Bat-family, looking all epic and brooding and darkness and stuff.

"... I'll pay for the damage, Brickowski," Batman said instantly.

Emmet only smiled. "I know you will. I can fix it, though. It's no big deal."

Nightwing, Batgirl and Robin looked at each other, clearly wondering what to do about the situation.

"Well, if you're sure you can fix it," Batman stated immediately. "If you can't, just give me a call tonight and I'll pay for it." Emmet nodded immediately. "Anyways, we've got a Joker to catch and the Batmobile's still in working condition. So, we've got to fly."

"Yeah," Emmet said with a smile. "Good luck, Bats."

"I don't need luck. I'm the Batman."

The annoyed looks from his sidekicks and Nightwing were what sent Emmet in a howling fit of laughter.

* * *

_"See you later."_

* * *

_Two._

* * *

For a moment that day, Emmet suddenly felt that Vitruvius was watching him. Looking around, he couldn't see any sign of the Ghost Vitruvius, as sometimes the old man liked to pop around and about and haunt some of them, sometimes for a few days, just for the laughs. However, no matter how much Emmet searched, he couldn't find him.

"Oh well!" Emmet voiced. "I'm sure he has his reasons for suddenly stalking me in silent!"

* * *

_One._

* * *

And finally the moment that he'd been waiting for all day. Lucy. And now, here she was in the most beautiful dress that he had ever seen in her in, and he in that tuxedo that she liked, and it just felt perfect. They were eating at a nice cafe along the commercial district of Bricksburg. A lot of the famous people ate around here, from Bruce Wayne to Tony Stark, and Emmet had even had the opportunity to shake the hand of Nick Fury once. He was sure that man didn't even remember him, but that was okay. It had been cool for Emmet.

Lucy's hair was down for tonight's dinner. She was absolutely stunning, her eyes seeming to glow and her make up needless but perfect. She had dressed up for this, and he appreciated every last bit of it, because he had attempted to, as well. Fashion advice from Benny was hard to decipher. As he looked down at the menu, he gave a smile.

"You can pick whatever you want from the menu, Lucy. Don't worry about the price."

He could tell from the look on her face that she wasn't so sure, so he gave her a smile. This was their night. The phone in his pocket was put on silent. No one was going to interrupt them. No one.

"... I think I'll try this steak... what do you think...?"

"You know what, that's what I was going to try, Lucy."

"Then I guess we're both getting it, then, babe."

She was doing that hair flip thing she did sometimes. He loved it when she did that. "Awesome. Anything else we need, do you think?"

"Well, they have this great looking appetizer..."

* * *

_"Tonight was wonderful, babe, thank you. I love you, good night." _

* * *

_Time is up._

* * *

It was nighttime. Emmet loved nighttime. It had been the most amazing day, and now he could think it over. It had just been... awesome. The stars were out, and he could imagine Benny flying his spaceship, admiring them from the pilot's seat. He wondered if Metableard was looking up from the _Sea Cow_ and seeing the same stars, or if he was far enough already that he was in a different place entirely. He probably was. He knew that Lucy and Unikitty were looking up at the same sky. The same nighttime sky, with the same clouds.

Emmet needed air.

Stepping outside, wearing his regular construction yellow and orange so people could see him, Emmet walked the streets of Bricksburg. It was a quiet night, with only a few of the citizens still out. Emmet breathed in the air and wondered what kind of day he'd be having tomorrow. Would it be as awesome as this one? He didn't know. He did know that Benny would be visiting with a little something, apparently, and...

Oh, no.

Was Benny thinking of giving him the ring? Gah! That wasn't the plan! He was supposed to give Emmet the ring when the construction worker was down on his knees begging for him to give him the ring so he could finally propose to Lucy. Or, when Benny felt it was necessary. So what? Benny felt that Emmet was ready? Because, he didn't agree. He wasn't ready, not yet. His legs still quivered at just the thought of taking that ring and bending down and giving it to her.

What if she said _no_?

This was not the plan. Not last he checked.

Emmet had been so distracted that he hadn't realized that he was crossing the street, and technically jaywalking. It wasn't something that Emmet liked to do, and after all, it wasn't safe sidewalk walking anyways. But, because he had been so distracted, he didn't realize he was being lit up by headlights until it was too late. He didn't hear the sound of the engine. He looked up, confusion over coming him, and the next thing Emmet knew, was darkness.

Complete darkness.

* * *

"**This wasn't supposed to happen so soon!**"  
"_Gah! What a mess this is_!"  
"**What was he thinking, the fool?**"  
"_We can send him back, but by then it'd be too late._"  
"**Well, not if we have him fix it before we do. The Portal will open to correct everything.**"  
"_We'll leave it to True to solve the problem._"  
"**Oh, yes, send _her _in, because that's the answer to life, the universe, and everything.**"  
"_Don't worry, don't worry. She'll make sure he doesn't screw up._"

* * *

Emmet woke up feeling slightly disoriented. It was an odd feeling, a little like he was detached from the world. He sat up and saw that he was in a strange room, appearing to be a bit like it was trying too hard to seem like regular outdoor scenery. When Emmet touched the wall, he didn't touch a tree, he touched a wall, and felt a little like he was being tricked. He wasn't too sure where he was, but the door was locked and so he resorted to sitting on the bed that he had been laying down on. Just where was he?

"If you're wondering where you are, you're kinda dead and in the afterlife," said a sudden voice, and Emmet looked up to find himself facing a girl completely in white clothing - white pants, white shirt, even white hair. None of it had any decorations of any kind, and her skin was yellow, much like his. "'Sup? I'm True, and I'm a Reaper. I'll get into the regular black stuff later if you want, but right now I need to talk to you."

"If this is about final words, I leave everything to Lucy," Emmet said immediately. "Or is this like orientation about being dead or something? Did Vitruvius have to go through this?"

"Yeah, kinda, and he was a real mess because his head was detached," True answered. "But, nah, this is none of that kind of stuff. Actually, there's a bit of a mess and we need you to fix it and stuff. See, you've been napping for eight and a half years. Congratulations."

"What?!"

"Yeah. It just sort of happened," True said with a slight wave of her hand. "But, listen, we can't send you back in time right now, not until the mess has been cleared up, and it's a doozy. Nothing is happening that should be happening, and everything that _shouldn't _be happening _is_."

Emmet took a moment to process that information and frowned. "That does sound like a mess."

"Yeah, and it all starts at your untimely, unplanned, pointless, and completely random death via jaywalking," True said with a nod. "Congratulations, Emmet Brickowski, you _broke time_."

"... I what?"

"You broke time." True seemed pretty annoyed at this. "Like, that's hard to do, and you did by jaywalking. Let me tell you, that's the most oddest way to do it, but then again, you're the Special or something like that, right? So I guess it makes sense."

"Actually, that prophecy was made up by Vitruvius."

"Whatever. Doesn't matter," the Reaper immediately. "What matters is you have to fix this mess that you caused. So, I'm going to be accompanying you down to Bricksburg and stuff and follow you around, making sure you don't mess up."

It took a moment, but that slowly registered in Emmet's head. "Are you going in disguise? Because I'm sure Lucy wouldn't appreciate her dead boyfriend walking around with a female Reaper."

True laughed at that. "No, no, they won't be able to see me unless I want them to. Benefits of being technically dead for you is you get to see me all the time even when I'm invisible to mortals. I'll be like your Navi to your Link, or Midna or something like that. Fi, whatever. Congratulations, your reward is a guide."

"Okay, that works," Emmet agreed. He paused, and then looked up at her. "So... how bad is it?"

True gave him an evil smirk. "... Pretty bad."

* * *

**End chapter. Review, Follow, Favourite, Close Tab. Do whatever you please. Just don't break time.**


	2. The Girlfriend and the President

**Chapter Two**

**The Girlfriend and the President**

* * *

When Emmet opened his eyes, he found himself laying down in what appeared to be his apartment. Maybe it had all been a dream? None of it had been true? He had never been hit by that car, never royally messed up... Well, that was a relief. Sitting up, he rubbed away at his eyes, stretched, and hopped out of his bed, leaving his bedroom and heading over to the kitchen. He passed by the simple green couch that sat before the television, and a few pictures of a dog and...

... _Wait_.

"... This isn't my apartment."

A quick glance around the layout confirmed that, yes, it had the same basic shape, but none of the stuff inside of it was his. Even the wallpaper was different, and he felt like his home had been invaded and violated while he was away.

"... What is going on?"

"Hello, Emmet!" said a sudden voice, and Emmet jumped, turning sharply to see True floating just above the ground in a comfortable looking sitting position. "Good morning, new saviour of time! Congratulations on your new title, and welcome to your new apartment. It's the same place as before, but since you've been dead for eight and a half years, none of your stuff is in it anymore."

Emmet glanced around some more, clearly worried about his things. "Where did they all go?"

"Mostly, your things were divided between all your friends," True explained. "Lucy has most of them, but I think Benny has that sweet double decker couch."

Unfortunately, Emmet felt like sitting on the ground and moping for the rest of the day. He didn't feel like getting outside and seeing how much his world had changed. True had said that everything that shouldn't be happening, was, so what could that possibly mean? The future was bleak, solely because he had died way too early? How could one simple thing like that...

"Emmet. Hey, Emmet. Special! Come on! We have to get moving!" Looking up, Emmet could see True floating just above his head looking ready to yank his hair off. "It's only day one and you're ready to fall off the deep end?! Come on!"

With that said, she pushed him out the door.

* * *

Bricksburg looked mostly the same. Well, there was a high crime rate now it seemed, but most of the chaos seemed to avoid Emmet and True, and most people who looked at him tended to shy away. True had magically fixed his bed head somehow, so now he was walking around looking like he usually did, dressed up in his construction outfit of yellow and orange and his name tag hanging off his belt. He felt completely fine, but he realized that he didn't feel hungry at all despite not eating breakfast, or even felt like he had to breathe constantly. It was a weird feeling.

He really was technically dead, and here he was wandering the streets in the very clothes he had died in. No wonder everyone was avoiding him.

"Your friends won't," True was saying as they walked along the street. Every other person on the sidewalk was phasing right through if they collided with her. "Avoid you, I mean. We've made it so they don't feel your creepy feeling of death and stuff. I can turn it off for people we need, too, so if you need to talk to Superman or something, we can arrange that."

Emmet just gave a cautious little nod, knowing that no one could see her right now.

"Oh, you're heading the wrong way," True suddenly said, and he looked at her confused. "Lucy lives this way, now." She gestured down to the neighbourhood that Emmet had been thinking of moving to and the construction worker felt his heart drop. "Come on, I'll show you the way."

Following the Reaper down the road, Emmet tried his best to seem as unimportant as he could to the other people along the streets. Police cars were driving up and down them, clearly on patrol, and there were a lot of them, more than Emmet had ever seen patrolling before. It made him nervous. How did so much happen just because he had died?

Eventually True stopped before a nicely made home with a small garden out in the boxes before the windows, mostly in good condition. She urged Emmet to step up to the door and knock, something that he cautiously did. He slowly stepped up toward the door, and hesitated before finally knocking. The wait for her to approach the door was increasing his anxiety. For him, he'd seen Lucy just three hours prior, saying good bye to her before going off and getting hit by that car. For her, it had been eight and a half years.

Finally, the door opened, and what greeted him was a tired Lucy, who looked like she had just woken up. Her hair was down and a mess, her make up wasn't even applied, and she was still in her nightgown. He looked at her, appearing to be this complete mess, and he still thought to himself that she was the most beautiful being that he had ever seen. He watched as her eyes widened in shock as soon as she had registered what she was looking at, he felt himself gulp from the pressure. What to say?

"... Hey, lovestruck," came the voice of True only he could hear. "Close your mouth, you're not a codfish. Say something!"

Emmet closed the mouth he hadn't realized he'd opened.

"Say something!"

"... What is this? Some kind of sick joke?" Lucy asked, the tone in her voice clearly speaking of her disappointment.

"Uh... Hi." Oh, genius Emmet. Genius. "No... Um. Lucy, it's me. We had a wonderful dinner, remember? We both had the steak."

"Stop," Lucy voiced, ready to slam the door. "Just... Just stop!"

"Lucy!" Emmet jammed his foot into the door to stop it from closing. Ignoring her angry words of protest, he began to speak. "I know! Okay, I know! I'm supposed to be dead, and really, I am, but I caused this whole mess of things that shouldn't have happened, so I was brought here to fix it."

"Fix it!?" Lucy's tone made him flinch. "_Fix it?! _Emmet, or whoever you are, you can't fix this!"

"I have to try!" Emmet argued. "This is all my fault. All mine! It wasn't supposed to happen, so everything else after it just got really messed up. I have to at least try."

Lucy shook her head, tears forming in her eyes. Emmet could feel his heart just plummet. "Do you even _know _what's happened in the past eight and a half years?" She looked at him once more, and Emmet could tell she wanted to believe he was who he said he was. "Some things that happened... those can't be fixed. You can try all you want, you _won't _be able to fix it."

True then spoke up, Emmet's ears being the only ones to hear her words. "Yeah, some of the things you can't possibly fix. We're lenient enough that you don't have to worry about the unfixable stuff, so don't fret over some of it."

Emmet gave a cautious nod. "I have to try, Lucy. At least try and make this a better place... For you, for my friends, my family... Make everything awesome again. I don't know what's happened in the eight and a half years I've been gone. I really don't. I just know that I screwed things up massively by getting hit by that car." He took an unneeded deep breath, and looked at her fully in the eyes, reaching a hand out to her. "But... I need someone who knows what's happened. Please, Lucy. I can't do this alone."

Lucy wiped the tears away from her eyes, and looked back up at him, looking at his outfit. Emmet started to feel a little self-conscious about it, noticing for the first time that in some spots of his uniform, there were some faded away bloodstains, matching up to the side of his body where he'd been hit. Lucy reached out and felt the uniform, before looking up at him. "... Okay, Emmet. Okay, I'm going to believe you. I'm going to help you. But, I need to get ready and run an important errand before we go anywhere. I want you to stay here. I... I don't think you're ready for that."

Emmet was confused, but nodded.

So, with that, Lucy quickly got dressed and cleaned herself up a bit, before stacking what appeared to be a lot of leftovers in food containers. She put them in a shopping bag and then explained that she'd be back as soon as she could. Emmet watched from the window as she left and he took the time to look around her house without really snooping. True had been right - Lucy did have most of Emmet's things. He noticed that the spare room that appeared to have been used in the past few days had his bed set in it, the blankets he had been using still in use. He found his television set in the office, tuned in to _Where Are My Pants? _on a low volume. A bookshelf had all of his books - mostly instructions - lined up among her own. The trophy he had was among some of Lucy's own, and a few of his posters were up on the wall as well.

And, as True had also said, it looked like she didn't have the double decker couch. Someone else did.

"She's still getting over it all," said True all of a sudden, as Emmet stopped before a photograph of all of them together. "I'm sorry for not fully explaining, but I feel that your friends and what's happened to them is a subject I have to tread lightly."

"Where's Lucy going?" he asked, turning to her. "And Unikitty? Where's she?"

True gave a slight sigh, returning to her floating-sitting position that she'd been in while in Emmet's apartment. "Unikitty no longer lives with Lucy. Cloud Cuckooland finished re-construction roughly half a year after you died, and she quickly moved back in and just slammed the door in everyone's face. She doesn't have any of the others over, but she does let Lucy come in when she's around that area."

"And is that where Lucy's going?"

"No," was the immediate answer. "It's not. That's a _really _hard subject to bring up with her. So, when she gets back, don't even ask."

"True, I have to know!" was his argument. "I have to fix this, right? So how can I do that if you're holding back information from me?" He looked around the room they were in, seeing all the photos of all of them and noticing that some of them had been turned so the pictures weren't showing. Turning them around showed that Batman were in most of this pictures, and some even were Emmet himself. Metalbeard's were slightly turned away, almost in shame, while Unikitty and Benny were treated with care, dusted and clean. "What's happened to all of them...?"

"That important errand Lucy's on... She's right. You're not ready for it," True admitted. "Some of the things that got massively screwed over will be a little hard for you to see. But, you're going to see it eventually, Emmet. You'll have to face it at some point. I wish I could explain everything, right here and right now, but we've _just started_ and I don't want to scare you off with some of the extremes. But, like I said, don't worry about the extremes. The unfixables. Fix what you can."

Some time later, Lucy returned looking more upset it was possible. Emmet watched from the living room as she straightened one of Benny's askew photos on the walls before walking into the room, seeing him on the couch with the television on. "Alright. So, I've thought it over, and I think we need to talk to President Business first."

"He's still President?" Emmet asked in disbelief. "Well, I guess he _is _President of the whole world, so it kind of makes sense he hasn't been kicked out or something..."

She gave Emmet a small smile. "Come on, let's go see him."

* * *

Octan tower, if possible, was even taller than it had been when Emmet last looked at it eight and a half years before. The staff were all human this time around, with everyone stepping around with their papers and their files looking about as happy as a fast food employee dealing with a hard customer. Emmet, dressed in some extra clothing once Lucy realized having him step around in bloody construction clothes was a bad idea, followed after Lucy as she wandered over to a set of elevators.

As they waited for one to show up, Lucy began to speak. "President Business, I think, is the easiest thing to start with if you're working on fixing what's gone wrong since you died."

"And what's gone wrong with him?" Emmet wondered aloud. "I mean, Octan looks like it's in working order."

"Octan is running fine, yeah, but President Business has become a bit of a workaholic," Lucy explained, before muttering something along the lines of, 'Like most of the others.' Emmet raised an eyebrow. "He's drowned himself in his work, most likely to keep his mind off of all the things that's been going on. He even fired Bad Cop."

"Wait... what?" Emmet voiced in disbelief.

An elevator arrived and they stepped inside. Lucy pressed one of the upper floor buttons and nodded. The doors to the elevator closed, and Emmet could feel them slowly rising up. "Yes! He fired Bad Cop. Maybe... four years ago? Anyway, he's so absorbed in everything that work's all he ever talks about. I think a visit from you is just what he needs."

True slowly appeared into existence, only seen be Emmet and gave him a stiff nod. "She's right, Emmet! Just try and hold a conversation with him. If you need a quick way to get his attention, mention your last conversation with him."

_Hopefully it doesn't come to that, _Emmet hoped, looking over at Lucy. He wasn't sure if Benny mentioned the ring to her at all, and hoped that he hadn't. It would have only made things much worse, he was certain. Though, now that he noticed, Lucy was wearing a chain around her neck. There was no ring hanging off of it, but clearly something had been there before, otherwise she wouldn't have been wearing it. He gulped.

Finally, the elevator arrived where Lucy had asked it to go, and they wandered down the hall toward President Business' office. "After we're done here, we're off to the country to see Bad Cop. He's not too bad, he's been doing pretty well, actually, but we could use his help getting into Pirate's Cove to get Metalbeard."

"Sounds like a plan if I ever heard one," Emmet commented, and together they approached the office and were stopped by a man the construction worker recognized as Doctor McScrubs, who scanned them.

As he did this, he stated, "Don't worry, I'm only scanning you to see if you mean any harm to President Business." He moved on from scanning Lucy to Emmet and frowned, gesturing to Lucy first. "Why do you come up like a normal person, and then I scan this guy," and here, he gestured to Emmet, "and he comes up as a corpse?"

"I broke time a while back," Emmet replied brightly. "It's okay."

"That's not okay!" True exploded behind him, and he tried his best not to physically react. "Man, do you want to know how hard it was just to make sure the world didn't blow up?! Death had to turn to a bunch of homeless guys with time machines!"

Dr. McScrubs gave him a confused and suspicious glance, but let them through as he didn't see or detect any weapons of any kind on either of them. Together, the two stepped through to the office as True vanished altogether to give the three of them time, waving goodbye. Emmet and Lucy approached President Business' desk, where he sat with a phone to his ear, chattering away at whoever was on the other line.

"Well, you tell Stark Industries that we accept their offer," was the tail end that they caught. "I appreciate their interest in our line of computers and television." He looked up to see Lucy and gave her a slight wave, indicating he'd only be a minute. "Right, that's understandable. Well, if you ever get a hold of Tony you tell that to him, alright? Thanks. Yes, well I have to go, a friend showed up. Thank you."

And with that, he hung up, looking up at Lucy and moving a few papers out of the way. She sat down at a chair across from him and quickly got comfortable, gesturing to Emmet to take the seat next to her. After a moment of sorting through some of his papers, President Business finally looked up and gave Lucy a frown, setting the papers aside and placing his hands in front of him on the desk.

"So, Lucy. What is the reason behind your visit today?" he asked finally, looking between her and Emmet. "And who's this fellow here?"

"He's my new assistant," Lucy stated immediately, before glancing around. "His name is..." Avery brand binder. Parker brand pen. Perfect. "... Avery Parker."

President Business blinked at the name and gave an approving nod. "Avery. I see. And he's your new assistant. Looks a bit familiar, but, okay. So, what are you here for? Was there something you needed? Did your little... project... need some money, maybe more _medicine_...?"

"No, that's all fine," Lucy responded immediately with a wave of her hand. Emmet glanced at her. She seemed upset at the remark. "Actually, I'm trying to get the band back together, and Avery figured he'd be a bit of a help."

Actually, Emmet wasn't sure what he could do now. True had suggested that he mention his last conversation with President Business, but Lucy had ruined that idea by introducing him as Avery Parker. He could tell now that even trying to get him interested in the conversation would take some time, seeing how even now he was back to glancing at files, reports, or some more papers, fiddling with a pen, or with his desktop computer. Lucy seemed to be getting more and more annoyed, and he found himself wondering if these kinds of get togethers between the two happened often.

"Um, right," Emmet(Avery) voiced, fixing the collar of his shirt. "I'm here to help."

"Lucy, you know getting the band back together would be difficult," President Business voiced, looking up at both of them from his paperwork. "I mean... Metalbeard's a problem all on his own, Benny... ugh, don't even want to get started there. Unikitty... well, she'd be easy, I guess... and then there's Batman."

Lucy winced.

"We can't get the whole group back together like it used to be," Business continued. "Batman and Emmet are _dead_." He fixed some papers so they were completely straight, as Emmet tried his best not to freak out from the news. It was hard keeping a straight face when you've just learned a friend was dead. "... And, Lucy... We both know who will be joining them soon."

"... Not if I can stop it." Lucy's expression darkened so much that Emmet pushed his chair away.

"You're simply prolonging his suffering, Lucy." Business' own expression fell to something almost understanding and concerned.

"No. I'm _not_."

Emmet looked back and forth between the both of them, confused so much, before he finally stood up. "Okay, stop right there and right now. We're not here to discuss who won't be here or who won't be here in the future, we're discussing who be here _now_. We're celebrating _now_, not yesterday, not what could have been. _Now_." He gave them both a stern look before turning it into a determined smile. "So, are you with us?"

Business gave Emmet such an odd look that his smile almost vanished. Then, the President turned to look at Lucy and said with a serious tone, "Where did you find this guy?"

"He answered my Help Wanted ad." The answer came quick, with a completely straight tone.

Business seemed to buy it, giving a dismissive shrug, before continuing. "Alright, so say we get all the other guys together and it's all of us, plus Avery. What exactly are we getting together for?"

Emmet cleared his throat - a sound coming out that didn't exactly sound natural, but considering his lungs weren't working, it made sense - and got both of their attention. Both of them looked at him with slightly confused and concerned expressions, but he simply gave a big smile. "Okay, so there are things that we need to repair in order to make this place... well, awesome again, right? This world has turned into a dark and dangerous place. Like, the crime rate is higher than eight and a half years ago!"

Business gave a sigh. "Probably because Batman died four years ago, Avery. The common criminals are rising up because the others are limited to Hero City. Batman wandered all over the place to solve crime."

"Well, what about Bad Cop?" Emmet asked.

At this, the President seemed confused. "I fired him around the time Batman was killed in action. Mostly to spare him, really."

"I didn't realize that's what it was for," Lucy interrupted. "You sent him home to spare him?"

Business nodded and continued. "So, you want to fix everything that's happened in the past eight and a half years? What brought this on?"

It was Lucy who spoke up. "Business, think about it. We've all separated, the Master Builders don't get together anymore for their meetings. Many of them we haven't even spoken to since Emmet's funeral. Because of our neglecting to take care of this world and everything in it, it's starting to go to a dark place. Avery's right, we need to fix this. All of this."

"And what would the biggest problem be?" Business asked. "What is our biggest threat?"

At that moment, the doors to Business' office burst open and in stepped a woman of peach skin and eyes painted blue. Her hair was a blonde hair piece - Emmet's Master Builder mind clocked it in as Part 85974. He remembered Black Widow of the Avengers had the exact same hair style and wondered if this woman was using it purely because of it. Her outfit was a generic business uniform - nothing really to gawk at or claim was unique. Aside from her face and her hair, she seemed like an average businesswoman. She rushed up the length of the office and put herself in between the two chairs Lucy and Emmet were sitting in, dropping some more papers onto Business' desk.

"Here are the forms you requested, Mr. President," stated the woman.

"Ah, thank you Miss Manager," Business replied in a distracted tone. "I'll look through them later, for the moment I'm having a personal visit."

"Of course," said Miss Manager, and she quickly retreated, though not before Emmet caught a rather evil smirk on her face before she left the room completely.

True slowly appeared before him and gave him a dark look before nodding and disappearing once more. So, that was the main problem right there. That was the biggest threat, the biggest mess up that Emmet's death had formed. Miss Manager.

* * *

It didn't take long after that to manage to manhandle President Business out of the office completely. His workaholic tendencies now meant that he at least was allowed to bring his little blackberry and still work on some important files as they hitched a ride on a bus system to another part of the universe. It was a new addition to Emmet, though according to Lucy it had been around for about seven years now, and allowed her to run a lot of errands in a single day as a result. Emmet tried to stay true to being Avery Parker for President Business as well, explaining that he and his family lived out in the country and he had recently moved into Bricksburg. It was at least believable.

Together, the three of them (with an invisible True), traveled to Pirate's Cove, deciding that they should at least attempt to talk to Captain Metalbeard before continuing on with gathering the others. Lucy had already decided that Benny would be last, and Unikitty would be next after Metalbeard. Bad Cop, who was out on a family outing at the moment, was completely unavailable, and none of them had been haunted by Vitruvius for weeks. It was the best plan they had.

True didn't show herself throughout the bus ride. Emmet simply watched as the realm came closer and closer, his eyes widening at just the sight. From a distance, it looked like a glow was shining through it like golden treasure, but as they got closer, he realized what it truly was.

It was _on fire_.

"That's a normal sight nowadays," came President Business' voice, as he looked up from his blackberry to see the fire. "That's what you get when you keep arresting Jack Sparrow and then releasing him like idiots."

"Not to mention Barbossa and Davy Jones himself," Lucy scoffed. "But Metalbeard's what we're after."

"... Let's hope he's not drunk," President Business wished.

* * *

**Review. Favourite. Alert. Do whatever you wish. Just don't mention Lucy's "project".**


	3. The Problem With Pirate's Cove

**Chapter Three**

**The Problem With Pirate's Cove**

* * *

When the bus finally paused at the stop, Lucy pushed Emmet outside into the wooden plank streets that made up the roads of Pirate's Cove. Together, the three of them approached a tavern, as Lucy explained the details to Emmet about what had happened. Since eight and a half years ago, the government of Pirate's Cove had gone completely under after the pirates had rioted and everything fell through. Business had admitted hat he was trying to fix the problem, but all the paperwork was still in the process of working through the council.

And then he remarked that it was odd that Avery didn't know any of this. Lucy quickly commented that his parents sheltered him somewhat. The President seemed okay with what she said, and so with that, the two of them continued their search through the burning town of Tortuga, the smell of burnt wood overwhelming all their other senses. Lucy was clearly annoyed about not being able to pick up Bad Cop before coming here, but they quickly moved on to trying to locate Metalbeard, which proved to be surprisingly difficult. At first, Lucy and Business tried all the regular taverns that weren't destroyed along the town, but after finding nothing, they were horribly stumped.

Then Emmet brought up the _Sea Cow_, and like that the hunt was on again. Their search led them to inspect all the pirate ships docked at the town docks, checking each one and trying to see if any of them matched the appearance of the _Sea Cow_. Out of all them, Emmet was the one with the freshest memory, as Lucy had soon explained that it had "been a while" since her and the President had last seen it at all.

True had then translated that to, "Try, like, four and a half years." Emmet was sure he visibly winced.

The search led them to finding the _Sea Cow_ on the farthest dock, being manned by many pirates of the crew, including the Flash and the Magician, both of whom were Master Builders that Emmet recognized almost immediately. The Flash had been present during Emmet's last moments with Captain Metalbeard, when they were all setting off to find the Dragonfire. He wondered how that search went, if it even went at all. Perhaps his death had affected that somewhat, but it was hard to tell and asking Lucy now would be risky, what with Business not knowing who he really was. Asking True would make him look crazy seeing as she was invisible to all but the technically clinically dead.

"Flash!" Lucy called out, gathering the attention of nearly every pirate on board. "Flash, is the Captain home?"

"Wyldstyle?! What are... ah, never mind," the Flash exclaimed in surprise. "Uh, he is, I think. Actually, let me check." He zoomed off, only to quickly return less than a second later. "Yes, yes he is! He's off mapping at the moment. Seems to be sober, for the most part! He's got rum on him, though. Common thing nowadays. Actually - - -"

"_Thank you_, Flash, that will be enough," Business interrupted.

The Flash nodded, before gesturing behind them. "Ah, look out. Rival pirate gangs coming through! Quick, get on the ship!"

The group turned to look behind them, seeing the crew of Jack Sparrow approaching. As swiftly as they could, they then board the _Sea Cow_, standing next to the Flash as they all ducked out of sight of the crew of the _Black Pearl _as they sauntered past, discussing their next port for treasure. As soon as they were gone, the group stood up again once more, the Flash looking somewhat sheepish behind his mask.

"Sorry about that. The _Black Pearl_ guys can get kind of rough when they need to. Really, they all can - _Queen Anne's Revenge_, the _Flying Dutchman_..." the Flash trailed off, clearly trying to think of other such ships that they've had to deal with. When he couldn't think of any others off the top of his head, he shrugged and smiled at the group, gesturing to the door that led inside. "The Captain's inside. What did you want him for, Wyldstyle?"

"We're getting the band back together," was President Business' explanation, as the Flash began to lead the way. "Well, as best as we can without Batman and Emmet."

The Flash began to walk backwards in order to see them properly. His major skill with it made Emmet wonder just how he did it. "It's still worth a try, though, right? Superman's been talking about getting the Justice League back."

"Oh, he's been around here?" Lucy asked curiously as the Flash went back to walking around like normal. "I was under the impression he was staying inside of Hero City permanently now."

"Yeah, me, too," Business added.

The Flash gave a shrug. "He pops by now and then. He's the only other super I've seen frequently since Batman's funeral four year ago. Haven't even heard from Green Lantern."

"It seems a lot of us need to do a lot of catching up," Lucy commented, just as the Flash stopped before a door.

The Flash opened the door and stepped out of the way, allowing the three of them to enter. "I'm sure he'd be glad to see you. Nice job getting the job as intern, by the way, mystery man."

"Avery," Emmet immediately said. "Avery Parker."

"Nice name! Any relation to Peter Parker? He's that guy that sometimes writes articles for the Daily Bugle."

"Nope."

"Ah. I was just wondering. Well, I'll be up on the deck if you guys need me! Later!" And with that, the Flash zoomed away.

Lucy looked between the President and Emmet cautiously for a moment, before finally stepping into the room, seeing Captain Metalbeard pouring over a map, a handy bottle of Pirate's Rum within reach. Emmet had never seen the pirate so haunched over, so down or clearly tired of everything, and looking around, the office itself wasn't even as full of treasure as it once had been. There used to be gold upon gold on this ship, so much that the pirate often joked on how much he didn't know what to do with it all. It seemed that in the eight and a half years that Emmet had been gone... the pirate had figured out what to use it for.

... Pirate's Rum.

Slowly, Lucy approached, before clearing her throat. The pirate didn't immediately react, but he did wave a mechanical hand before speaking.

"I know why you be here," was the first thing that he said, "... and I am not interested in what you be needing to say."

"... Metalbeard."

That one word, and that one voice, Lucy's voice, was enough to cause Metalbeard to turn completely around. The face that looked at the group sent Emmet back to thinking about that time at the docks, where he helped the crew load up supplies and boxes before they set off to find the Dragonfire. He remembered even what Metalbeard had last said to him... _"Be seein' y' shortly, lad. Won' be gone fer long!"_ and wondered to himself how he could have screwed up so badly by getting hit by a car. He backed away as Metalbeard knelt down to Lucy's level, looking at her and President Business like a lost uncle who was looking at his niece and nephew after so long of never seeing them, and wondered how to fix this. All of it.

"... I told you it was bad," said True all of a sudden, as she blinked into existence beside him, using a floating scythe as a seat. "I told you there was a lot that would need fixing, and it's not just your friends. Okay, most of it is your friends, but the really bad parts can be fixed by joining them together once more. All you need now are Unikitty and Benny."

"... And how hard is that going to be?" he whispered, turning around so he was facing the wall and seemingly examining a map. "I know Unikitty will be a problem, but what about Benny?"

True didn't answer right away, leaving Emmet with a sinking feeling inside of his stomach. "I think I'll leave the whole Benny thing to Lucy, Emmet. If you suddenly know all about the problems with getting on Cape Space and where Benny lives now and his living conditions, well. I think she'll be a mite suspicious."

"How can I fix this, then?" he whispered to her once more, looking over at the group. He couldn't help but feel a little left out, a little sad, as he watched the reunion between Metalbeard, Lucy and Business, as they discussed life. Metalbeard's words were calm and quiet, almost reassuring, as Lucy discussed the lie that was Avery Parker. "What do I start with?"

"Lucy wants to focus on gathering up the gang first," True remarked, hovering beside him as she sat on her scythe. "I've talked to some of my Reaper buddies, and they say that there's this event that's going to happen that will... uh... halt that temporarily. Descriptive, I know, but they're, like, going nuts over this thing. So, in order to make sure that we work nice and quickly, we might have to skip Benny altogether and work on fixing the social problems in order to prevent this thing that my Reaper buddies are freaking out about."

"I can't just leave Benny out because you suggest it," he muttered, turning to the wall. None of the others noticed this seemingly one-sided conversation, and he wondered if True was rendering them invisible to them. "He's my best friend. Practically my brother."

"I get that," True commented. "But you have to realize that the problems you have to fix are not limited to your friends. Look outside this window, Emmet."

Emmet did what he was asked, and looked out to a scene of a blazing Tortuga. Pirate ships sailed the waters nearby, some launching cannonballs at each other. A pirate ran away with a pretty woman in red toward a small boat at a dock, the woman screaming bloody murder as she was carried away, a man who might have been her husband chasing after the two of them. A few pirates were hanging out in the windows of a fancy manor by the water, singing a drinking song. It was pure chaos.

"Pirate's Cove used to have a sense of order," True explained, as Emmet continued to look at the destruction happening outside. "It used to be that the Five Captains governed everything, that is, until eight and a half years ago."

"... After my death." His voice came out so quietly that he wasn't sure that True heard him.

Yet, he sensed that True nodded. "Your death made people realize that it's possible to kill a Master Builder. It was possible to take a Master Builder's life... and it was so easy for you to die, in fact, that all it took was for you to jaywalk without glancing both ways down a street, and a car slammed into your side."

Emmet winced, glancing down at his right side, the side that had been hit. He remembered the blood stains on his construction uniform.

"The Five Captains of Pirate's Cove are now actually Four, and so horribly unbalanced that it's impossible for them to come to a solid decision," True continued to explain. "You may recall when we got here that Lucy and President Business had said that the government of Pirate's Cove collapsed when the pirates rioted. That all happened when someone - a simple man by the name of William Turner - killed Captain Davy Jones himself." Emmet looked at her in disbelief, and she became visibly flustered, trying to explain. "Well, it's not rightfully confirmed, okay? But Will was the one who stabbed the heart. Okay, we're not entirely sure what happened and it's a big fat mystery, but long story short, this regular, every day guy named Will Turner is now the captain of the _Flying Dutchman_, and the Realm of the Dead had a field day when Davy Jones showed up."

"So, that's what, three Master Builders dead?" Emmet muttered, still trying to keep his voice low. Himself, Batman, and now Captain Davy Jones. How could one death cause all this?

"Yeah. And now one of the Five Captains is not even a Master Builder, so the regular, everyday pirates rioted. Note this is like one month after you're dead." Emmet nodded, making the notation in his mind. "The other four Captains are Captain Jack Sparrow, Captain Hector Barbossa, Captain Edward Teach, and Captain Johnathan Metalbeard. Now there's also Captain Turner, but they don't like to count him because he's not a Master Builder. He's technically a blacksmith turned vigilante turned pirate."

"Do we know for sure that Captain Turner's not a Master Builder?" came Emmet's piercing question, his quiet voice causing True to blink.

"Well, actually... no, we don't. That's a good question." She clearly pondered for a moment before finally blinking at him. "That might be something to start with. If we can figure out if Turner's a Master Builder, then we might be able to solve the problem with Pirate's Cove and its government issues. The reason this whole crazy whack-job politics thing with all the pirates is going on is because the other four think he's not a Master Builder. But why do you think Turner might be a Master Builder?"

He gave her a small smile, and quietly said, "Everyone's got potential to be a Master Builder."

"Well, then, my living corpse, it's time we get a move on to finding out if your hunch is correct!" True chirped excitedly. "Come on, I'll show you the way to where the _Flying Dutchman _is. The downside of the _Dutchman _is, if my outdated legend knowledge is correct, that it can only dock, like, once every ten years, but thankfully we seem to have good luck. It's nearby."

"Are we going to get Lucy?" whispered Emmet, giving the love of his life a quick glance. She seemed to be sadly smiling at something that Metalbeard asked, but since he hadn't been paying attention to anything being said, he wasn't sure what the conversation had turned to. He'd been too busy getting a history lesson on pirates.

True shook her head as she floated into view, still sitting on her scythe. "Let's leave her be. She hasn't seen him in four years. Last she checked, he was drunk as you could get and flaring shots everywhere from his double cannons. Now here he is somewhat sober. It's a nice change for her."

As True showed Emmet the way out, he dared to ask in a low voice, "What changed his mindset? Why is he sober now?"

They stepped out onto the deck and Emmet was landed with the sight of his crew hurrying away to prepare the ship for launch. They flew in all directions with rope, cannonballs, and sails, the Flash zipping from starboard to port side, and all around, gathering up rope, boxes, and all sorts of things and placing them were they were needed. He realized why True never said anything - the answer was obvious. Metalbeard was trying to sober up for the sake of the crew. Once a loving uncle figure, always a loving uncle figure.

"We should probably get going," was the thing that True said. Emmet immediately agreed.

"Oh, Avery!" Suddenly, the Flash was in Emmet's face, seeming quite happy with something. "Where you off to? Off to somewhere?"

"Actually, I'm off to go do some Pirate Politics."

The Flash gave him an odd look. "Why?"

"Well, I feel that I can be of some assistance to solving the Pirate's Cove problem!" Emmet chirped cheerfully. "The main issue is that the other four don't believe that Captain Turner is a Master Builder, right?"

The response was a confirming nod from the Flash. "That's right. It's tradition, for many years now, well, at least until eight and a half years ago, anyway, all the Five Captains must be Master Builders. Will Turner - the replacement for Davy Jones - is not a Master Builder. But killing him off to get a Master Builder to be the leader of the _Flying Dutchman _sounds a bit extreme, don't you think?"

"I don't want to kill him off!" Emmet assured him. "I just want to see if he actually really is a Master Builder."

The Flash gave him an unsure expression. "... And why?"

"Well, everyone has the potential to be a Master Builder!" Emmet said happily. "I mean, think of that guy, that died eight and a half years ago - Emmet Brickowski was it? He was just an everyday, average kind of guy, following the instructions and doing exactly was expected of him. And you know what he turned out to be?"

The Flash smirked at the memory. "... He turned out to be a Master Builder. Everything that guy built was _so _sturdy like you wouldn't believe - it'd stay together and never fall apart... It's a shame he died so early. All his friends... They're not even hanging out anymore."

"I want to fix that," Emmet replied, clearly surprising the speedy super. "So I'm heading off to fix Pirate's Cove and it's wacky politics."

* * *

With that, the Flash and the Magician were rowing along the water with a rowboat, Emmet it's only other passenger. They laid low as best they could before pulling up against the _Flying Dutchman_. Since the death of Davy Jones, the crew had actually become a bit nicer about unwanted visitors - William Turner was clearly a nicer man than the former Captain had been. Still, that didn't mean they didn't have to sneak board. It meant they still did - and they were going to do it. Cautiously, the Magician levitated a rope up to the ship and the three climbed aboard, making sure they little rowboat wasn't going to drift away. They snuck past a few of the men, cleverly trying to sneak inside of the main ship.

The rumors of the _Flying Dutchman _were terrifying ones. People who came aboard never came out... people who died at sea were doomed to a lifetime of working their way on the ship until all debts had been paid. The ship could only dock once every ten years.

As it turned out, that last one was a bit of a lie, as the Flash had quickly explained on the way here. He explained that the ten year thing had been a curse on Jones for not staying true to the deed given to him - but when Will Turner took the job and was staying true to the course of the ship, then, if all went well with the love of his life waiting for him in two years, then he might be free of the curse forever and free to move on.

"... He's really looking forward to it, if I understand," he continued as they tiptoed around the inside of the ship. "He likes finding things for his girl."

So far, everything was going just the way they planned. That is, until...

"You're trespassin' where you shouldn't be, lads."

The sudden voice caused them turn around to come face to face with what they knew was the captain's first mate - Bootstrap Bill Turner. They were caught!

* * *

"... Thank you so much for understanding, Metalbeard," Lucy commented as she, Business, and Metalbeard stepped up to the deck. "This means so much to me."

"It be meaning a lot to me, as well, Lucy," Metalbeard replied honestly, as he looked around the ship's deck. There were some pirates missing... "I don't be understanding yer reasoning for suddenly wanting the gang back together as it once was, but it sounds like a nice plan. This salty old pirate hasn't seen Benny and Unikitty in a long time..."

"To be honest, I haven't, either," Business admitted. "Lucy's the only one I've seen frequently."

"Yes, she be the only one even trying anymore..." Metalbeard stopped, barking up to one of the actual pirates on his ship. "You there! Where the Flash and the Magician?"

"Captain!" the pirate called out. "The Flash and the Magician went off with that intern. Something about politics?"

"WHAT?!" Metalbeard almost scoffed. "Why they be racking their minds o'er such a useless thing as politics?" He turned to Business. "No offense, lad." Then he turned over to his crew. "Set sail! We be searching for the missing members of our crew! ... And that intern!"

* * *

"Well, it was worth a try..." Emmet sighed, grasping onto the bars of the cell he was now in. "Saw this coming a mile away."

"Gotta love them pirates," True commented, slowly appearing next to him, still sitting on her scythe. They weren't alone in the brig, as the Flash and the Magician were slightly off to the side having a bit of an argument over what was better - big boxes or big barricades. There was someone else, too, but neither the Special or the Reaper had bothered to give them a second look. "The thing about pirates is they have this weird code, right? Could have said parley or something. Actually, you might have some leeway. Just explain you're Emmet back from the dead and placed here to fix everything! Even show them you don't have a heartbeat. Clear your throat! Sound like that dying cat again."

He gave her a frown. In the tight quarters of the brig, there was no whispering he could do that wouldn't make him look like he was crazy.

"... Or not. Look, I'm just trying to be of assistance, okay?" She hovered in place, gaining a thoughtful look, before she suddenly perked. "... Oh... would you look at that!"

He looked where he was looking, and his eyes widened. "... Uni... Unikitty?"

Sure enough, there sat Unikitty, in the cell adjacent to his. Her eyes were wide as saucers as she looked between Emmet and True, and with horror, he realized she could _see_ the Reaper floating next to him. Her colours were somewhat faded, at least just a little bit since their fun little hangout on Emmet's last day, but there was no doubt about it. No one jumped around like she did, leaving rainbows and butterflies in her wake with every step. No one had that cute head and big eyes, and no one gasped for that long when she finally realized just what she was looking at, or whispered in such a low tone as she cautiously asked...

"... _Emmet_?"

"... I can explain."

"You _better_! Is this permanent? Are you staying forever and ever? Does Lucy know? Have you visited Benny?!" She gave quick gasps of breaths as she tried to calm herself. "Oh, Emmet, it's just been so sad since you left! Nothing's the same anymore, I mean... everyone just slowly began to leave and it was just so _sad_..."

"Slow down, Princess!" True exclaimed, and Unikitty silenced right away.

Emmet reached a hand across the hallway, trying to reach for her. The Flash and the Magician were looking at them completely startled. "... I know. I'm trying to fix it, but its not permanent... Lucy does know. And... no, I haven't visited Benny. Little Miss Reaper here won't tell me what's going on with him."

Unikitty looked up at him with a slightly hurt expression. "... He doesn't _leave_ anymore. He's not..." She sniffed. "He's not my friend. No one is."

"You know that's not true!" Emmet assured her as True scoffed at the very idea of Unikitty having no friends. "We're all your friends. Watch, I'm going to get you out of here, just you wait and see. What are you doing here, anyway?"

She sniffed and looked up at him with her big eyes. "The _Dutchman _appeared at the gates of Cloud Cuckooland - - -" ("Gates?" "It's a new addition." "Oh.") "- - - and so I thought, hey, as Princess, I should go welcome them and then kindly tell them to go away!" She frowned. "... They didn't like that."

"They're pirates, genius," True commented, still sitting on her scythe. "Princess. Pirate. Pirates kidnap princesses. Pretty straight."

"Well, Metalbeard doesn't go around kidnapping princesses on a whim!" Unikitty blurted out.

"Metalbeard doesn't meet a lot of criteria for Official Pirate, you know," the Reaper responded with a shrug. "Like, he's got the beard and the eye-patch, and the hat, and the crew, and the ship, but he doesn't do a lot of stealing, smuggling, and ransacking."

"That's because he's a _good pirate_," was Unikitty's argument. "This one and aaaaaaall the other pirates are _bad pirates_."

"Oh, so there's _good_ and _bad_ pirates, now?"

"Yes."

Emmet quickly decided that he needed to step in. "Okay, so we've got to have a plan... right? To get out?" A sudden cannonball to the wall answered his question. It seemed someone else had found the _Flying Dutchman_.

"That didn't sound good!" was the Flash's participation, as he tried to speed himself up so he could pass through the bars. "I think it might be another ship!"

"Which one?!" asked Emmet.

"To be honest, I couldn't tell you - all the pirates use the same cannonball!" At Emmet's annoyed look, the Flash gave a desperate nod. "Yeah, I know! But look on the bright side, Emmet! There's a one in four chance it's our guys!"

"That's right!" said Unikitty as another shot allowed her to leave her cell. "Stay positive! No frowny-faces!"

With another clever shot of a cannon and True knocking down Emmet's gate, the five of them continued out of the brig and into the ship itself. Working together, they managed to build a way to the top of the ship, getting out into the deck and seeing the chaos that was ensuing around them. That was, of course, the sight of the _Sea Cow _firing all that it had onto the _Flying Dutchman_. They could see Metalbeard angrily giving orders as the other pirates of his crew loaded the cannons and fired, Lucy and Business seeming to be helping by gathering cannonballs or even firing their own once in a while. Emmet looked up to see Captain Turner himself, giving orders to his own crew.

"Turner!" he called out, gathering the Captain's look. "I need to know! Are you willing to break the instructions!?"

The Captain appeared shocked at this accusation before he nodded. "I was willing to break the law for Elizabeth!"

Emmet took that as a yes. "Alright, so I need to test something, then. True, get me pieces! Flash, Magician, you too! Unikitty, stay here with me!" As he gave orders, the ones called out immediately got to work, with True flying high up above the mast and knocking one down. The Flash dismantled one of the cannons and the Magician did the same to a storage box. Unikitty and Emmet sorted the pieces they received from the others by size, as Turner came down in confusion.

"What is going on here?" he asked the group.

Emmet gestured to the pieces. "Build something to protect you from the _Sea Cow_. It's only shooting at you because you locked us up here."

Turner looked down at the pieces the group had provided. With a gulp, Emmet watched as the Captain took the pieces and slowly began to assemble something. That something that he assembled had to what Emmet declared was the absolute most amazing, most incredible cannon that he had ever seen, and as soon as he was done, Turner picked up Unikitty, and sent her flying through the cannon and onto the _Sea Cow_. With perfect aim.

"... _Wow_," was all the Flash, the Magician, and Emmet had to say.

* * *

With the reveal that Turner was, in fact, a Master Builder, the pirates of Pirate's Cove began to piece together the political government that they had completely destroyed eight and a half years ago. The attempt at locking up all the pirates only to let them go slowly dwindled as a peace began to rise between the Five Captains once more. Unikitty kept quiet about her discovery of Emmet and True, though as the ship began to leave toward its next destination, she smiled up at him.

"It's because I'm a Cloud Cuckoolander," she explained to him. When he gave her a questioning glance, she smiled brightly. "Why I can see her. Because I'm a Cloud Cuckoolander!"

Emmet smiled and patted her head, as he turned to look at the others. Lucy and Business were clearly discussing something important, and the Flash and the Magician were talking to Metalbeard, who looked over at Emmet and Unikitty in surprise. The construction worker frowned somewhat, as he looked away and toward their next destination. Back to Bricksburg. He hoped they could find a way onto Cape Space, after all... True seemed to imply it wasn't easy.

This whole thing wasn't going to be easy.

* * *

**Review. Favourite. Alert. Whatever you want to do. Just don't stab the heart.**


	4. Policed To Meet You

**Chapter Four**

**Policed To Meet You**

* * *

The Bricksburg countryside was a quiet, beautiful place. Crops and small houses were littered across the area, the only roads being that of dirt road with only two lanes. The Cop household lived in the small village area, where a series of shops and houses quite honestly only stretched across five streets, barely even worthy of the title "village". Ma Cop and Pa Cop were the only Cops in the area, that is, until Business had sent Bad Cop there after Batman's death.

Emmet remembered the Cop family house. After saving the world from the Kragle and the Duplo aliens, the group had become very tight. If Metalbeard was the group's uncle, and Benny and Batman were Emmet's brothers, then Ma and Pa were everyone's parents, regardless of your relation to anyone else in the group, whether you be someone's girlfriend or the uncle-figure of nearly everyone involved. Whenever anyone visited, they would fidget with the clothing of the visitor, declaring them: "Emmet, you are clearly not eating your vegetables," or "Lucy, dear, you are too thin for a nice girl like you," or "Benny, me boy, you are clearly not eating as much as you should," and patch up a meal worthy of the entire _Justice League_, and considering the Flash eats more than anyone else, that is saying something. Their favourite visitors, by far, had always been Business, Benny, Emmet and Lucy, Business' status as "favourite" being the prime example of their forgiving nature. They would always fuss over Benny's cracked helmet, or his tendency to float when he got too excited or distracted, always yanking out a ladder out of quite literally nowhere whenever he got stuck on the ceiling or in a tree or upside down and stuck to something, all of which had happened more than once. They would lovingly joke about Emmet and Lucy's love, always giving dating advice to each of them or even planning a few surprise get-togethers for them, running away before they realized what was going on. That last dinner they had... that had been orchestrated by Ma Cop.

Yes, Emmet realized with a smile, Ma and Pa shipped the two of them hard.

So, as they stopped at the countryside and started their way down the road toward the house, he started to get a little nervous. True had not shown herself to warn him of anything quite yet, so he hoped that everything was alright with the Cops. If anything had happened to that family because of him, he'd feel more responsible than he already did for all the chaos that had reared its ugly head already. Metalbeard being a drunk, Unikitty doubting the value of the friendships she had, Business being a workaholic, and Lucy... Lucy living all alone in that house with her mysterious errands with leftovers and never getting over him. What could have possibly happened to the Cops?

Stopping at the house, he gaped up at the sight. Apparently, absolutely nothing.

The house had actually changed colours between the last time he was here and now. Usually a nice white colour, it was now a nice shade of blue. It was clearly being taken care of all these years, and the curtains and the blinds were actually new. The number of rose bushes out in the front yard had increased by ten, however, and for a moment Emmet wondered what that was all about. The group minus Metalbeard, who awaited on the street, approached the front door and Business was the one that was elected to knock on the front door.

He gave a dramatic sigh as he looked up from his handheld computer. "You know, they're probably not even here. They were out on a family outing, remember? I think it was a picnic."

Unikitty gasped. "They still do family picnics? Ma Cop's food had been the best..."

"Look, all I'm saying is this might be a dead end," said the President, and he reached out with his free hand and knocked along the door.

Surprisingly, it opened up to reveal Good Cop. Emmet hadn't seen Good Cop for a while - after the whole thing with the Na'il and the Q-Teep and the scribble face, no one was expecting anyone to be able to fully repair Good Cop, and yet - it had been done. Just one day, Ma Cop stepped up and said they had found a doctor that could fix the face, and lo and behold, it had been done. It was not the exact same face as before - there were a few differences, mostly in the shape of the glasses and the way that the face itself moved, but all in all, it was Good Cop and the parents were glad to have both their sons back. But even then, most of the time, Bad Cop was in control and was the last one that Emmet had seen. Now, here he was eight and a half years later, and it's Good Cop answering the door.

... Holding a tub of ice cream and a spoon.

"Good Cop!" Business piped up with fake happiness. "Hey, my man, it's been a while... How are you? How are the parents?"

"Oh, fine, they're all fine," said Good Cop with a happy tone. "What brings you here to the country?"

"Well, actually, Lucy's trying to get the band back together."

"That will be a bit hard," remarked the Cop. "Is she planning on Frankensteining Emmet and Batman? What about that whole thing with..."

"... _Don't mention that_," Business immediately interrupted, rushing forward and glaring at him. "But, no, she doesn't plan on Frankensteining Emmet and Batman. At least I hope she doesn't..." He turned to her. "You... You don't plan on doing that, do you? Trying to bring Emmet and Batman back from the dead? Because that's crazy. Just letting you know."

Lucy frowned. "No, I don't plan on doing that."

"Good! So, anyway, Good Cop, you were part of the band, so you're getting picked up." He smiled at Good Cop as if he had won the lottery, and stepped out of the way. "So, how about we put the tub of ice cream back in the freezer and move on to the next step?"

Bad Cop unexpectedly switched in. "... Who's the other guy?"

Business turned around and came face to face with Emmet. "Oh, that's Avery Parker, Lucy's new assistant."

"He answered my Help Wanted ad," Lucy immediately cut in. "And he was a bit sheltered, so he's not really aware of _current _things. Think, he's like Benny, but with politics instead of technology."

Emmet made sure to give her a bit of a glare, something that Unikitty giggled at. Still, he quickly changed his expression and smiled at the Cop.

Good Cop switched in and smiled. "Ah, I see! Well, that's fine, I suppose, but we should probably wait until my parents get here so I can let them know where I'm going." He paused. "Where... exactly are we going?"

"Well, I guess we're going to Cape Space next," Business figured with a shrug. "After this, Benny is all we need to get."

"Oh! Well, that's alright, I suppose."

Sitting around the Cop family home brought back memories to Emmet. He sat on the couch where Benny usually sat, mostly because when he tried to sit in his usual spot, Bad Cop had shooed him away from it, saying the seat was taken. Batman's seat was also left completely untouched, everyone avoiding it just as much as they avoided Emmet's spot. The television was on some news about Pirate's Cove politics having been solved and the Five Captains were now working on fixing the moral problems of the pirates. Emmet watched in silence as the news reporter - a new one from eight and a half years ago, moved on to another topic, this one about Cape Space and how the people were working on a new rocket for traveling through space to explore through the vast unknown. Something about how this one was apparently unbreakable, which would negate the need for the space guys to leave the shuttle and fix it from the outside.

"... This is of course, going to prevent helmets being cracked, a problem that has happened in the space. According to scientists, the cracking of helmets results in the lack of oxygen which of course brings either death, or Space Madness," the reporter stated, reading off cards in her hand rather than a teleprompter. "The most famous case of Space Madness is, of course, Pilot Ben Blue, a famous Master Builder who had once worked alongside Emmet Brickowski. Blue is well known for the making of over 800 different kinds of spaceships despite being sick with Space Madness, and all that before abruptly stopping his progress roughly seven years ago and completely disappearing off the map. Len Red, the head of the new rocket project, states that this rocket has been made with Blue's most refined spaceship taste in mind."

Bad Cop frowned. "... She has no right to be talking about either of them. What do they have to do with the new ship? And going so far as to declare Benny sick with Space Madness. Jerks."

The screen then cut to someone Emmet only barely recognized as the Red Space Guy Master Builder. "Benny made some of the most amazing spaceships. We still have a lot of them in storage from his massive spaceship making fiasco from nine years ago. Ben, if you're watching this, we made this with you in mind."

And suddenly, like that, the television was turned off by Lucy. "He's most definitely watching that."

"How _has _he been lately?" asked Good Cop. "Business tells me you've still been stopping by his place every chance you get."

Lucy gave an anxious look to Emmet before sighing and nodding with a sad smile. "... Yes. He's been the same as always."

True appeared at the door, gathering Emmet's attention away from the conversation as Lucy began to ask Good Cop how he'd been. The Reaper gestured to the door, and held up two fingers, and then gestured to the clock. He glanced up at it, and saw that the current time was 1:30. So, most likely, Ma and Pa Cop would be coming in about half an hour - at two. He turned his attention back to the others to discover that Bad Cop was telling the group about how someone had been coming through the countryside looking for Master Builders, and raised an eyebrow.

"She goes on and on about how she needs a Master Builder that can build things for her," he went on. "... and everyone in the village are trying to tell her that no one like that lives around here."

"Who was doing it?" asked Unikitty. "Did she give a name?"

Bad Cop nodded. "She did. Called herself Miss Manager."

Business looked up from his Blackberry. "What?! Miss Manager?! She's my secretary!"

"Well, what's your secretary doing running around the countryside trying to find Master Builders?!" Lucy asked in disbelief. "I mean, what purpose does that serve her?"

The response was a completely confused shrug from the President. "I don't know! This is news to me!"

* * *

From there, the conversation moved to more current things, things that Emmet listened fondly to so he could understand the world as it was now. Lucy talked about how Bricksburg was going to be making a new division - a place that Business then started to explain was called Suburbia. This place was basically still in the works, but Lucy explained further that Emmet's old Construction Team was working on it now as they spoke.

Unikitty talked about a few of the new people in Cloud Cuckooland and how they were having trouble adjusting to the big party that it basically was. She giggled and explained that they weren't expecting the loud music all the time and so she was talking to the others about maybe adding a more quieter area that the newcomers could live in so they could have their peace and quiet.

Business talked about how he was planning to get Stark Industries to help him make a brand new kind of television and a new line of computers. He went on to talk more about the owner - Tony Stark - and how the man was a genius with technology, apparently much like his father. He went on and on about the different kinds of tools and business offers that Tony was making toward Octan and was eventually cut off.

He was cut off by Bad Cop, who went on to say that while he was now out of work, his parents were not, and apparently crime in the country was very minimal and all around easy to deal with. He told a story about how his mother once caught a thief and sat him down and talked him through about life choices. ... And it worked.

* * *

"Emmet!" True suddenly called out, gathering his and Unikitty's attention completely. True was hovering by the window, still sitting on her scythe. "... I think you might want to see this."

Quickly thinking, Unikitty stepped up. "I think I hear something outside!" Her tone completely innocent, she approached the window where True was and peeked out. At the sight of whatever was out there, she gave a light squeak and quickly ducked. "There's people out there! They have signs! They're trying to find Master Builders!"

Everyone rushed to the windows at her announcement, True disappearing from Emmet and Unikitty's view. Peering out the window, everyone spied a group of suspicious vans parked along the road, people dressed up like police officers handing out flyers. A big sign was placed next to them announcing the need to report any Master Builders or Suspicion of Being a Master Builder. Emmet frowned at this - what was Miss Manager up to that she would need Master Builders? He was pretty sure that Business had completely dismantled the Think Tank, instead making a series of awesome offices and an entire penthouse for himself that could fit Metalbeard with no problem.

Good Cop switched to Bad Cop, and his heavy voice began to sound. "... We have to leave. Now."

"Is there any way out in the back?" Unikitty asked. "It's been so long since I've been here, I don't remember..."

"This way," Bad Cop voiced, and together, the group followed him out into the backyard, where Metalbeard was waiting.

The backyard, with tall trees and more rose bushes than any other place in Bricksburg most likely, was fenced in except for the gate at the end. Unfortunately, as the group soon began to find out, the entire house was surrounded. A lone police officer stepped up and spoke into a megaphone.

"We've got the place surrounded!" he yelled. "Halt! Don't move!"

"That's not the way you do it!" Bad Cop barked. "Gah, they're not worthy of the title of police officer!"

"Calm down!" Unikitty said cheerfully. "We can do this nicely! I'm sure of it!"

But, there was a swarm. They really were surrounded. Emmet watched as the world around him began to fog over, like he was suddenly even more detached from everyone. He watched in horror as police officers tethered down a fighting Metalbeard, who was outnumbered and brought to the ground, despite all the cannons he was firing. Lucy was swarmed by more of them, as she tried to protect Business and Unikitty. Bad Cop was the one that stayed in the fight the longest - flinging people left, right and center, having picked up a convenient chair that was sitting out in the backyard.

The chaos was astounding. Everyone was trying to fight back, but anytime Emmet tried to do something, he felt like he was in a dense fog. He could barely hear the voices of the others, as Lucy called out, "Has anyone seen Avery?" or Unikitty would say, "Behind you, behind you!" and everyone would do their best to watch the others' backs. Emmet wasn't even sure where all the goons were coming from, but they were there, and they were swarming into the backyard, sadly destroying Pa Cop's fence, and Ma Cop's rose bushes.

And Emmet found himself wondering why they weren't coming after him, why no one seemed to notice him but Unikitty, who gave him a sad look as she was finally captured and carried away, being placed inside of a police cruiser. Lucy looked back to the backyard as she was led to a van, looking around frantically, as Business was placed next to her, Bad Cop, now Good Cop, sitting across from her as the door slammed after her. Metalbeard was tied to the back of another van and carted away, and True hovered into Emmet's vision, a grim expression on her face.

"... We need to get Benny, and I need to tell you _everything _that's going on with him."

* * *

"Why didn't you let me _do _anything?!" barked Emmet as he was led through the countryside. "I could have _done _something!"

True shook her head. "No, you couldn't have. Look, that was meant to happen, and since you're dead, that would have tipped off Miss Manager that she's made the Realm of the Dead so made we brought you back to deal with it. And now it's time to really tell you something. Something that I've been holding back on because, well, I figured that Lucy was the best to tell you, but as usual she can't do anything that the Realm of the Dead expects her to do since you died. She's been holding back on this, probably because she's worried about your reaction."

"Let me guess, it has to do with Benny," Emmet asked, his voice dripping with worry.

True nodded, as she hopped off her scythe and started walking alongside him, her scythe held tightly in her hands. "So, about a year after you died, and Unikitty had already slammed herself into Cloud Cuckooland, Batman had decided that the solo ride was the perfect thing for him, right? Well, everyone else at this point was kind of wondering what to do, and Benny was starting to have panic attacks."

"Panic attacks?" That was new.

Now she gained a sad expression. "I'm not sure how much you know about Benny's history, but he's terrified of rejection and abandonment. He hates being alone, and he hates being left behind. Like, telling him a spaceship isn't really needed in a situation is fine, but basically telling him that he's not needed? That's not okay with him." She took a deep breath and gestured to the afternoon sky. "You can't see it because of how bright it still is, but you can see Cape Space from here. One day, around seven years ago, Benny decided that if everyone that was important to him was going to leave, then he might as well make it easy for him, and locked himself away in his little spaceship mobile home and never came out."

Emmet was quiet for a moment as he tried to make sense of what was going through Benny's mind at the time he did this. "... He must have been upset..."

"Everyone was leaving him behind. Lucy was still really upset about all of it, watching your old _Where Are My Pants? _series collections, reading your instruction books and basically ignoring everyone... Unikitty had shut everyone out by hiding away in Cloud Cuckooland, Batman had left to fight crime with the Bat-Kids... Metalbeard was starting to drink at that point..." True paused. "... Really, it just seemed to him that no one wanted anything to do with any of the others, and he felt..."

"... Abandoned." Emmet realized. "He thought... Everyone was basically abandoning each other, leaving everyone behind as they went on to do their own thing. And _I _caused this. I am the reason all this happened." He felt so responsible for everything. And really, he was. He had done this to Benny. He had done this to Lucy. He killed Batman. He made Business a workaholic, Metalbeard an alcoholic, Benny a complete shut in.

True looked at Emmet full-force now. "He's not completely alone. Lucy checks in on him, leaves him food to eat and reminds him to take medicine if he has a headache or something. She's, like, the only reason he's still alive right now."

Emmet nodded. "Okay. So we need to get him."

"It's going to be hard," True voiced. "He hasn't left home for seven years."

"I get that," Emmet responded.

"Alright, so let's get going!" True voiced, and they continued on their way. Time to go get an old friend.

* * *

**Review. Favourite. Alert. Whatever you want to do. Just don't forgive me for the punny name of this chapter. I know it's awful. God.**

* * *

**Response to a Guest's Review: **

Seeing as _**wafflestheninja**_ didn't sign in for his/her review/wondering question, allow me to respond to it here. I have horrible knowledge on the _Ninjago _series and am completely lacking a proper idea of Lloyd's character, really only knowing he went from brat to the Green Ninja at some point and his father is the main bad guy and my cousins think he's awesome. My eight year old cousin, who lives three provinces away from me, is far more knowledgeable on this subject seeing as he watches it religiously, has like ten LEGO sets, and tried to track down a Cole keychain when we were at Lego World last summer. So, I'm afraid until I can get him to lecture me about the characters, Lloyd may not make an appearance in _8 and a Half Years Later_.

However, allow me to come up with a response for you in regards to how Lloyd probably reacted to Emmet's death. Seeing as Lloyd is in a whopping four scenes in the entire movie (though he's also in the game, eeeee wait till my cousin finds out), it's hard to determine how well he'd get along with Emmet considering he had, like, no lines. But, the way I see him, I think he'd be accepting of him after the point where he proves himself (tossing himself into the Abyss of Nothingness in order to dispose of the battery powering the computer). I like to imagine that Emmet got to know quite a few of the Master Builders during his time in the group before his completely unplanned death, Lloyd included. Now, it's hard to determine how he would have responded to Emmet suddenly being dead, but I'd imagine that he attended the funeral, gave his condolences to the main group, then scattered back to the world of Ninjago, making frequent appearances to the Master Builder meets at the Batcave up until Unikitty slammed the gates of Cloud Cuckooland in everyone's face once it was rebuilt and everyone just sort of started doing their own thing. In truth, he probably reacted a lot better than Emmet's friends at least and was able to move on at some point. He has a constant group of teammates and people that care about him that would be there for him when he fell, comforting him and being there as he struggled through the loss and slowly got over it, whereas Emmet's friends just sort... just sort of fell apart at the seams after he died and let each other sit in the pit of regret and loss.

Really, a lot of Emmet's friends just sort of retreated into their own little world after his death. I don't see Lloyd doing that, but in the end, it's up to you how he responded. I think you know him better than me. I hope that somewhat answered your question! If you have any more or you have a better idea, just let me know. Also, in regards to other characters, there will be characters that will/might have LEGO sets (based on how testing will be going on that certain set/series I now have my eyes out for. Damn you, Mr. Internet, for alerting me to this) in the future that will be appearing, and also series that already has LEGO sets that weren't in the movie. This is just to let you know there will be a few... surprises. So, while _Ninjago_ might not make an appearance, that doesn't rule out _other series _altogether. You may recall Business having a call from Stark earlier.


End file.
